The 1,500-Pound U-Haul Load Repeats Daley’s Prison Run

Butte County deputies stopped a U-Haul on Highway 70 in Oroville on November 27, 2024, and found about 1,500 pounds of marijuana plants. The driver, Michael Daley of Oakland, told them he had smoked marijuana about 30 minutes earlier.

Sixteen years before that stop, the same Oakland trucker took a four-year prison term in New Jersey for 147 pounds hidden in a semi. The cargo changed. The job did not.

A Speeding Stop on Highway 70

Deputies pulled Daley for speeding around 3:30 p.m. as the truck ran southbound on Highway 70 near Garden Drive. They saw signs he was under the influence, and he admitted the recent use. The Butte County Sheriff’s Office called in the California Highway Patrol, then opened the cargo.

Inside were about 1,500 pounds of marijuana plants. Deputies arrested Daley and a passenger on suspicion of illegal transportation of a controlled substance. Daley was also booked on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs.

The passenger was never named in the sheriff’s account. No later public filing turned up that identified a buyer, a farm, or a licensed distributor attached to the load. Southbound from Oroville is the direction an Oakland driver would take toward the Bay Area, but deputies did not say where the plants were headed.

The Same Trucker Did This in New Jersey

On March 10, 2008, New Jersey State Police stopped Daley’s rig on Route 80 in Mount Olive and found 147 pounds of marijuana stuffed in three duffel bags in the sleeper cab, a load then valued at $516,000. He was 39, of Oakland, and working as a long-haul trucker. A first trial ended in a hung jury in December 2009. Less than a week later he pleaded guilty to second-degree conspiracy to possess marijuana.

Judge Thomas Manahan sentenced him on March 19, 2010, to four years in New Jersey state prison. The other counts, and a pair of motor-vehicle summonses, were dismissed. A retrial conviction could have brought 20 years because the weight was more than 25 pounds. The plea offer on the table had been five years with no parole minimum, the same term given to his co-defendant and girlfriend, Adeilei Mosley-Bakari, 35, of Atlanta.

I made a big mistake, the biggest mistake of my life. I’m sorry. I’ll take the punishment.

Michael Daley, at sentencing in Superior Court in Morristown, N.J.

Defense attorney Alex Pagano told the court Daley had gone along because he was in love with Mosley-Bakari, who Pagano said arranged the haul. “Stupidly, instead of doing the right thing, he assisted Ms. Bakari in delivering that pot,” Pagano said. Manahan cut a year off her term and still rejected the lovesick reading. “In fairness, Mr. Daley was not the quote-unquote ‘prime mover,’ but he was more than going along for the ride,” the judge said.

Daley, a native of Jamaica and a U.S. citizen, admitted in the plea that on March 8, 2008, near Ontario, California, he learned his trucking partner was moving the marijuana to the East Coast and agreed to take part for cash to help pay off his truck. Under the four-year term he became eligible for parole in 9 months and 26 days and owed $3,700 in fines and penalties.

DALEY’S TWO RECORDED LOADS

1. March 10, 2008: State Police stop his tractor-trailer on Route 80 in Mount Olive, N.J., and find 147 pounds of marijuana in three duffel bags in the sleeper.
2. March 19, 2010: He is sentenced to four years in New Jersey prison after pleading guilty to second-degree conspiracy.
3. November 27, 2024: Butte County deputies stop his U-Haul on Highway 70 in Oroville and find about 1,500 pounds of marijuana plants, more than 10 times the New Jersey weight.

The Oroville load was also more than 23,000 times California’s 28.5-gram personal-possession cap. He had swapped a semi for a rental truck. The math went the other way.

Rental Trucks Keep Moving the Same Loads

Daley’s U-Haul was not an outlier on California pavement. Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue’s office stopped a U-Haul in Dunsmuir on July 26, 2024, that held 3,969 pounds of marijuana, four months before the Oroville stop. The method kept paying into 2026.

U-HAUL LOADS STOPPED ON CALIFORNIA HIGHWAYS

The Dublin crash is the one with pictures. CHP Dublin Area officers answered a wreck at about 9:25 p.m. on March 26, 2025, west of the Interstate 680 interchange, smelled cannabis in the cargo box, and found the bags plus the cash. Captain Gerardo Serrato said illegal marijuana “can create many problems in our communities.”

On 3/26/25, at approx. 9:25 PM, Dublin CHP officers responded to a crash, I-580 WB, w/of I-680 involving a U-Haul truck. A strong odor of marijuana was emitting from the cargo area. After further investigation, over 2,000lbs of marijuana was discovered along with $13,120 in cash! pic.twitter.com/xoyKQFI2YD

— CHP Dublin Area (@CHPDublin) April 1, 2025

On the Colusa County van, CHP said the occupants could not show they were legally moving the cargo, and one already had felony drug warrants. A rental truck is cheap, anonymous, and easy to drop. Licensed cannabis in California is supposed to move in tracked vehicles with a distributor license. These stops keep catching the other fleet.

The cheap-flower reading is fair as far as it goes. A couple of thousand pounds can look like a few busy days behind a legal counter. The gap is the paperwork. Unlicensed weight still undercuts taxed shelves and still travels toward states that never built a legal supply, which is why a speeding ticket on a north-state highway keeps turning into a cargo case.

What California Law Allows on the Highway

Recreational cannabis has been legal in California since voters passed Proposition 64 in 2016. Hauling it for sale without a license has not. Health and Safety Code section 11360 still makes unlicensed transport for sale a crime, and “transport” in that section means transport for sale.

For most adults the charge is a misdemeanor: up to six months in county jail, a fine of up to $500, or both. That is the odd residue of legalization. A U-Haul full of plants can still land in the same penalty band as a much smaller unlicensed sale, unless prosecutors plead an aggravator.

WHEN THE CHARGE CAN BECOME A FELONY

• Violent or sex priors: One or more convictions on a listed serious violent felony, or an offense that requires sex-offender registration, can raise the term to two, three, or four years.
• Repeat 11360 cases: Two or more prior convictions under the adult misdemeanor clause of the same section also raise it to that two-to-four-year term.
• Sales to a minor: Knowingly selling, attempting to sell, or offering cannabis to a person under 18 is a felony trigger.
• Import or export over 28.5 grams: Bringing more than 28.5 grams into California, or moving that much out of the state for sale, is the interstate aggravator, with a four-gram line for concentrated cannabis.

Daley’s New Jersey conviction is not a California 11360 prior, and a southbound Highway 70 run is not, on the sheriff’s account, an export. Deputies booked him on suspicion of illegal transportation and DUI. They did not publish a complaint that chose felony or misdemeanor.

CHP policy is plainer on the commercial side. Moving cannabis for sale is legal when a licensed distributor does it. CHP’s cannabis enforcement order says commercial distributors must be licensed by the Department of Cannabis Control, and officers are told to investigate unlicensed distributor and delivery work as a 11360 case. A U-Haul key is not that license. Officers are also told not to seize cannabis for DCC rule-book violations alone; they need a criminal hook first. Speeding and a DUI admission supplied one in Oroville.

Butte Ranked Third in the Spring Sweep

The state’s own numbers show why a 1,500-pound rental still matters after legalization. Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said January 27, 2026, that the Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force recorded $609 million seized in 2025, an 18-fold rise from 2022, after 48 operations in 23 counties and the destruction of 188 tons of illicit cannabis.

By July 8, 2026, the running total was 841,000 pounds of illicit cannabis valued at more than $1.3 billion. That count sits with the Department of Cannabis Control task force launched in 2022, co-chaired with the Department of Fish and Wildlife and coordinated by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

UCETF TOTALS SINCE 2022

• Product destroyed: 841,000 pounds of illicit cannabis, plus 1.3 million plants, valued at more than $1.3 billion.
• Warrants and map: More than 750 search warrants across 29 counties, with 100 arrests.
• Cash and guns: More than $2.8 million in cash and over 250 firearms taken.
• Spring 2026 quarter: 63,204 pounds destroyed, 89,257 plants eradicated, 24 arrests, 17 firearms, and $220,923 in cash across 10 counties.

Butte County showed up on the spring leaderboard. Officers there seized plants, two firearms, and evidence of organized crime while writing environmental citations, and they made two arrests on that operation. Those two arrests are separate from Daley’s 2024 traffic stop.

SPRING 2026 SEIZURES BY COUNTY

DCC Director Clint Kellum tied the raids to the licensed trade that is supposed to replace the U-Haul circuit.

These continued efforts protect the health and well-being of California’s communities, our economy, and the licensed cannabis market.

Clint Kellum, Director, Department of Cannabis Control

CDFW Director Meghan Hertel said the spring sites also turned up restricted pesticides that her agency “frequently see[s] at grow sites associated with organized criminal enterprises,” chemicals she warned can harm fish, wildlife, and anyone who later buys untested product. Highway 70 through Oroville is one of the roads that product still uses.

The DUI Stop Opened the Cargo Door

The Oroville case did not start as a cannabis investigation. It started as speeding, then as a driver who had smoked about 30 minutes earlier. That admission, and the signs of influence, gave deputies a reason to keep going until CHP and a cargo search produced the plants.

The same opening keeps appearing. Dublin’s load came out of a crash and an odor. The Colusa van came out of a speed stop and “numerous signs of criminal activity.” People moving weight in a rental still drive like people moving weight in a rental. The orange box does not hide the odor, and it does not hide a DUI.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The stop: About 3:30 p.m. on November 27, 2024, southbound Highway 70 near Garden Drive in Oroville, for speeding.
• The cargo: About 1,500 pounds of marijuana plants in the U-Haul, with CHP called to the scene.
• The driver: Michael Daley of Oakland, who admitted smoking marijuana about 30 minutes before driving and was booked for illegal transportation and DUI.
• The prior case: Four years in New Jersey prison, imposed March 19, 2010, for the 147-pound Route 80 load.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The passenger: Arrested for illegal transportation and never named in the sheriff’s public account.
• The case result: No later court calendar, plea, or sentence for the 2024 stop appeared in public records searched for this report.
• The destination: Deputies did not say whether the plants were headed to Oakland, to an unlicensed buyer, or out of state.
• The license: No DCC distributor credential was described, and the booking was for illegal transportation, not a paperwork ticket.

On July 22, 2026, CHP stopped another U-Haul van south of Arbuckle on Interstate 5 and found more than 200 pounds of marijuana. The people inside could not show they were allowed to move it.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of public arrests, statutes, and enforcement figures. It is informational only and is not legal advice, a prediction of any charge or sentence, or a substitute for counsel on a criminal or cannabis-licensing matter. Anyone facing investigation or charges, or anyone who needs to move cannabis commercially in California, should consult a licensed California criminal-defense attorney or a cannabis-licensing lawyer before acting. Weights, bookings, and task-force totals reflect the public sources named above and can change if prosecutors file new papers or agencies revise their counts.